BUFFALO, NY-- The former leader of Local 17, the Operating Engineers Union, who was on trial for racketeering has been found guilty.

Mark Kirsch was found guilty Friday in Federal Court. Four other union leaders, also on trial, were found not guilty.

The defendants were accused of trying to sway contractors to hire union workers on some of the biggest construction sites in Western New York over a 10 year period from 1997-2007. They were accused of damaging equipment and property of those who resisted them, and in some cases assaulting them, including stabbing a construction company president.